Disney execs unhappy with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story so far?

Page Six ran a story last night discussing the state of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The gist of the story is that the film is in trouble and execs are not happy with the results. Early on there were a lot of rumors that Rogue One started with a higher budget than what they had to work with in the end. The result was a lot more CGI than The Force Awakens and using places that actually exist in the real world and making them look like they belong in Star Wars. I generally don’t report on the drama around the new Star Wars films unless it seems to impact the making of the film itself.

The source added, “Disney won’t take a back seat, and is demanding changes, as the movie isn’t testing well.”

Up front, there was just a round of reshoots in the last week or so. I’m not sure if the footage from that turned up wonky or not pleasing to Disney, but it seems fairly fast for the reshoots to have occurred and that footage to have been tested with a non-industry based audience.

The last round of reshoots were planned and to the best of my knowledge, the cast and crew knew about July reshoots in advance. That said, over the weekend, people were hearing that Disney itself was not happy with aspects of the film. This story didn’t come out of thin air. However, the response to the movie being troubled appears to have been somewhat overblown to say the least.

I don’t think fans (myself included) should have a “the sky is falling” mentality about this. I suppose if you’re a Disney investor and this movie is going to cost more money than you once thought, that’s your right. However, the film has more than enough time to fix whatever is making the executives unhappy. At the end of the day, do I really care if some executives at Disney are unhappy with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? Outside of The Force Awakens, these people haven’t given me that many films I care for. I care that Lucasfilm and Gareth Edwards are happy with the film. Executives did not make Star Wars great and they won’t start now. The artists and writers that create the movies will make it great. We just have to hope that the artists are given the free reign to make the films they want to create.

The Force Awakens just made a boatload of money making a film that is a greatest hits of Star Wars montage (done right). The first film to hit that attempts to break the pattern of feel good storytelling is probably going to have a rough time. It sounds to me like people being in a “panic” is exaggerated. The film is still so far away it can be fixed if it even needs to be fixed. I think we should care when Lucasfilm isn’t happy with their film, the director isn’t happy, the writers aren’t happy and so on. Executives care more about playing golf than making good films. To an extent I question if these unnamed execs even know why the plans to the Death Star are important. To their credit, these executives are giving the film reshoots when others might just can the movie entirely. That in and of itself should be reassuring.